1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to improvements in control circuits for electric lawnmowers and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a motor control circuit for controlling the operation of an electric lawnmower which is responsive to the bridging of first and second operator contacts mounted on the lawnmower handle to connect the blade motor to a power source.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, the motor control circuits of most electric lawnmowers consist simply of mechanical on-off switches such as that which can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,885, issued to Smith. Other lawnmower designs provide for a plurality of mechanical apparatus for controlling additional functions such as clutch, speed, etc., as can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,069, issued to Weck.
In the past, some electric lawnmowers have provided additional apparatus to prevent the inadvertent actuation of the lawnmower during recharging of a battery or the like, such as can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,735, issued to Jepson. A less sophisticated mechanical interlock can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,581,480, issued to O'Connor, which also incorporates a conventional "dead-man" switch on the handle. However, it has not been proposed to provide electric lawnmowers with touch responsive control circuits, one variety of which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,843, issued to Vaz Martins.